Carne Asada and Sun Vista Frijoles

Erin and I are big fans of Mexican food! I have been grilling fresh Carne Asada for a few years now. I do not know how traditional this recipe is but we love it! Since it was a rainy day and a little cool we thought this would warm us up a little!

1-1.5 pounds flap meat
Juice of 2 lemons
Juice of 1/2 orange
Juice of 2 limes
2-3 jalapenos
1/2 of 1 onion sliced
2-3 cloves garlic chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Place meat in a low profile dish cover with jalapenos, onion and garlic. Pour juice over top cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours. I added a couple slices of all the fruit for the looks! When done marinating we throw the meat on the grill for 3-4 minutes per side. The flap meat is pretty thin so not much cooking time needed!

The bean recipe came from some of the ladies at my work. It is a great quick way to make beans. They end up looking and tasting like refried without all the work!

3 cans 15oz Sun Vista Frijoles Pintos (I drain two and use the juice from 1)
2-3 jalapenos diced (if you like hot add more!)
6 oz Monterrey jack cheese

Pour beans in pot with the diced jalapenos and put on med-low heat. I usually let sit for 20-30 minutes. Then cut about 60z or 1/3rd of the Monterey jack cheese into 1/2" or 3/4" inch cubes. Slowly add the cheese in and keep stirring or the cheese will stick to the bottom and burn. After all the cheese is melted, about 10-15 minutes I take my Braun hand blender and blend it until what I would call chunky. You do not want to puree it. You still want some whole beans in there. We use soft taco size tortillas, sour cream, pico de gallo, cheese and any other fixings you may want. Makes a great meal and you have some wonderful leftovers also!

PS: Erin is about 11 weeks now and she is feeling pretty good. No morning sickness which is nice! She is tired and hungry! As you can see I am keeping her fed well! Our next appointment at the doctor is this coming Thursday. I read part of a book she gave me and it mentioned that she could be more affectionate in the first tri-mester. Well I think I may write the author and debate that with him! I am kidding of course! In the morning she has been taking her vitamins and I have been making fruit smoothies for us. We bought the bulk frozen fruit package at Costco. It has strawberries, mango, pineapple and papaya. I put about 2 cups of that with 1 cup of pineapple orange juice, and 1 package of orange cream yoplait, and a banana and blend it. it makes for a nice addition to breakfast!